Jamaican PM will not “yield to pressure” on gay rights

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The British HIgh Commissioner to Jamaica is named Mr Cresswell and his email address is bhc.kingston@fco.gov.uk. Please write to him to tell him you express your horror at Jamaica’s homophobia and ask what he is doing to change this.

I’ve written an email I’ve included below:

Dear Mr Cresswell and the British HIgh Commission,

It is with increasing horror that the gay community in Britain is listening to the homophobic slander of Jamaican politicians about the gay community in Jamaica.

The Prime Minister Bruce Golding last year told the BBC that gay people would never be allowed in his cabinet and recently said that are resisting pressure to allow any acceptance of gay people and their rights.

Coupled with this there are the media reports of baying lynch mobs murdering gay people (with the approval of the police) and the reports from the Human Rights Campaign in the US that says Jamaica is the most homophobic country in the entire continent of America.

I am interested in knowing what the British High Commission in Jamaica is doing to address this growing homophobia.

I am encouraging everyone to boycott Jamaican products and to boycott it as a holiday destination. Please advise what financial sanctions are to be taken by Britain against Jamaica. It is obviously 100% unacceptable to give a single penny of British money to a regime that is so blatantly discriminatory.

Looking forward to hearing your ideas on how we can tackle the dangerous bigotry emanating from Jamaica.

I urge everyone to follow Simon’s excellent example and contact the Jamaican High Commission, boycott Jamaican goods and holidays and contact their British MP to demand action by the British Government including suspension of all foreign aid to this backward-looking small minded excuse for a nation. Its also important that the High Commission receives communications from the wider population i.e. non-gay family and friends as they will easily dismiss letters from ‘the gay community’ but may take more note from a wider expression of disgust which will worry them with the prospect of a threat to their economy and particularly tourist trade.

I would like to see a concerted effort to boycott Jamaica and to bring as much political pressure to bear upon its government as possible. I find it particularly irritating that Jamacia’s entire tourism promotions are targeted at the heterosexual couple, they are promoting the Island as an idillic “love” destination. How many of those people targeted for visiting Jamaica for a holiday or to do business would choise to go there if they knew the full extent of Jamaica’s rabid and murderous homophobia? Boycott is a very effective method of hurting these politicians in the only place they really care deeply about. I wonder how may gays are employed in the advertising agencies that are being used to promulgate that myth?

In addition to the above comments if you to to thier tourist site at http://www.visitjamaica.com a full contact list of all the emails in their offices world-wide can be found. I would think if every single gay person with access to an email were to send a protest to them and were to invite every friend they have to do the same it might be useful. I think they need to be told we are not visiting Jamaica anytime soon.

Jamaica can fall off the face of the Earth as far as I’m concerned. I would never buy a Jamaican product or even consider a vacation there. Some vacation that would be! And it is the height of irony that this ridiculous “buggery” law is itself a vestige of colonial times when Jamaica was run by slave traders. You’d like that people of color living on an island founded on slave trading would have some compassion for their fellow human beings. Human memory is short and dangerous. STAY AWAY FROM JAMAICA.

I think the threat of a boycott is a more effective tool than an actual boycott – particularly if the press pick up on it. If the British HIgh Commission and the Jamaican ‘prime minister’ receives a couple of hundred emails from people threatening a boycott then they will take it seriously.

This Bruce Golding needs to get out of Jamaica and see more of the Western world in order to come to the realization that in a few decades’ time he’s gonna look bloody foolish and completely out on a limb!

I think its pretty sad for a country with such beautiful people to be under such destruction and total prejudice.. I do not know whats worse Idi Iman when he ruled over in Uganda or white people who slaughtered, imprisoned,oppressed and violated our civil rights for many centuries. I will never visit Jamaica , its no different then the people in the USA. The only difference is our laws protect the gays here, but if congress could it would be reversed as well. Tormenting, murdering someone because of there sexuality are you serious. Then the church preaches those hypocritical crap about gays, but no one talks about the vulgar language in reggae music,adultery in the community or other unspoken of crimes against one another. “There is no man with out sin”. Whom ever the prime minister/president is needs to be treated just like the people there treat gays…

The type of bigotry being espoused by the PM in Jamaica is also held by the vast majority of the population in Jamaica. That would indicate that the majority of Jamaicans are violent bigots. Ironic considering the island’s history with slavery. They’ve learned nothing from the lessons of history and now they should suffer the financial consequences of their stupidity and hatred.

The only problem with this boycott idea is that Jamaica, as a developing country, is rather impoverished (both financially and morally). A boycott, although an interesting strategy and possibly an effective one, would not only hurt Jamaica’s bigoted, heterosexual population, but the gay community here as well; particularly those who are not of the middle or upper classes and would be even more vulnerable than they are now. We need to consider other solutions.

Some of the comments on here are wuite sad with no real thought of what life must be like for many LGBT Jamaicans – Jamaica as with the rest of the world has its bigots it doesn’t make everyone on the beautiful island hate filled. Sure jamaicans have a hard task to undo the centuries of colonilism that has left homophobia entrenched (as with much of the black Dispora) this will only come from the people of Jamaica – no amount of boycotts is going to effect change and most probably woul do more harm to the average LGBT Jamaican in any case.

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